European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 02, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday april 2, .1991 the stars and stripes Page 2in the Gulf is Repa i is More by Tom Furlong and David freed the los Angeles times Kuwait City a mired in. Problems from the Start the. . Emergency Effort to put Kuwait Back on its feet is taking r far longer than anticipated and May Cost twice As . Army officials say. Col. A Ralph v. Locurcio head of the army corps of engineers unit Here said in an interview last week that it would take the corps As much As a year to com plate its Relief work. The Effort had been expected to last three months and Cost the kuwaiti government1 about $46 million. Long Supply delays at the Border of saudi Arabia and misunderstandings about what work should be done by whom have plagued the Rescue Effort according to army officials. Quot this is a most difficult Job a Locurcio said a because there a so much unknown  the slow Pace of recovery has dashed  business executives Hopes to can in quickly on Kuwait a Long term recovery a task estimated to Cost from $40 billion to $100 billion. Reconstruction is expected to take As Long As five years. A fall these companies think that the sky is the limit and in a going to Tell them it is not a said Joost Wolt Swokel acting director of the Netherlands 1 ministry of economic affairs. He recently toured the City and spoke with . Army officials. Even though iraqi troops left Here More than a month ago commercial activity has barely begun to revive because much of the emirate remains without regular water service electricity and a viable lending system. A r the once vibrant downtown business District with its gleaming skyscrapers is awash in debris and broken Glass its Best hotels Are blackened ruins and its once crowded streets largely devoid of cars and  merchants can be found sitting idly by outside their looted gutted businesses unsure of what to do. A my whole life is gone a s Aid a jordanian Man sweeping his hand toward the charred Shell of what was once a jewelry Kiosk. Still a few sprinkling of commercial. Activity is emerging particularly in the areas beyond downtown where iraqi troops were generally less destructive. On Friday for example optician you Sef Jannessa for the first time in seven months was reopening the shop he has operated for 30 years Jannessa boarded up the shop shortly after the iraqi invasion in August hiding his inventory of  Quot a v a a s he v v i a wac k .j,\0? a columns of vehicles from the . 3rd army div Rove North through Kuwait toward Iraq against a backdrop of burning Oil Wells. More than 10,000 pairs of glasses in his Home. % a a. The businesses flanking his a a restaurant and a television repair shop a _ Are still boarded up. As Jannessa swept the store his first customer drove up a a kuwaiti needing an adjustment on a pair of sunglasses. Regretfully Jannessa  help. The tiny screwdriver he needed Quot to fix the glasses was at Home among the boxes of goods and supplies he had hurriedly packed hoping to hide them from the iraqis a before War t million people Here. Now nobody Here a Jannessa said. A look on Street. You can to get anybody. Maybe two three years business Good  several Miles up the coast pharmacist Fouad h. Awad sat in his darkened store waiting for the Days first customer. Awad had reopened wednesday doing a brisk business in Vitamin tablets and contraceptives. A. A a. A. A a a though still without electricity Awad said he considered himself Lucky. Although a syrian restaurant next door was thoroughly gutted the iraqis left his tiny Phoenicia pharmacy untouched. In recent Days Power has begun to come on in selected areas throughout the City. A we have electricity. Its wonderful a Nadrah Al Rasheed said after Power was restored this week at an apartment where she lives with her husband an accountant and businessman and two Young children. According to the corps of engineers Locurcio it will take another two weeks for full Power to be restored another month before the water system is fixed and As Long As two additional months before the sanitation system is functioning properly. _ local businessmen say the commercial life in Kuwait will not begin to reappear in a major Way until Basic services Are repaired Quot and the Banks with Quot government assistance Start making Relief Loans. Only then they say Yuill Kuwait a extensive and prosperous merchant class much of which is living abroad return in free. Members of Kuwait a influential merchant class Are becoming increasingly angry with what they View As their own governments paralysis in handling the immediate crisis. Their complaints Range irom a Lack of information about government Loans to the growing mountains of garbage that As Long As regular trash pickups have not been not restored Dot neighbourhoods throughout the City. Ibrahim Shaheem is the kuwaiti government  m charge of the Temei gency Rescue Effort. He has not been available Lor comment since he has been in saudi Arabia the actual work of gelling the electricity working and the water running has fallen to the < army corps of engineers. The corps the governments primary Arm of construction in disaster Relief usually does not get involved outside North America. As the extent of the damage Quot has become available kuwaiti government officials have asked the corps to do More and More damage. Assessment and repair work. Talks Are under Way on additional work that would roughly double that original $46 million contract Locurcio said. A a we la slay As Long As they pay our salaries a he said. . Uncovers fronts hiding Saddam s billions s Washington apr the . Government has cooperation with kuwaiti authorities and Kroll have cites investigation company spoke in inters. Washington apr the . Government has compiled a list of front companies and agents around the world that helped Saddam Hussein a family hide billions of dollars it skimmed from iraqis Oil revenues v Saddam who took Power in 1979, is one of the worlds richest men a joint .-kuwaiti investigation has found the investigation determined that the iraqi presidents family skimmed $10 billion in Oil profits since 1981 and used the Money to buy into companies in Europe and the United states. Iraqi investors working for. Saddam have purchased nearly $1 billion in shares of publicly traded companies including French Media giant Hachette a according to chief investigator Julius Kroll. Kroll said last week that he discovered companies linked to Saddam in Italy Germany Switzerland and Britain As Well As in France and the United states the Treasury department planned to release the names of the front companies and agents monday. The Treasury and state departments and the Fri in cooperation with kuwaiti authorities and Kroll have been investigating Saddam a finances since Iraq invaded Kuwait last aug. 2, a. . Government source said last week a v v the results of the investigation Likely will be used in War reparation claims against Iraq by Kuwait saudi Arabia and Israel. A Treasury officials said the department has seized or _ is preparing to seize an estimated $1 billion to $1.5 Bil. Lion in assets that Saddam or the iraqi government owned in the United states. Aon March 22, for example Treasury agents seized the assets of acc amp Wadi his wife Sha Suban a i Hay r. Deri and Bay industries inc., a company based in Santa Monica Calif. The government alleged that All three had helped Saddam procure arms for Iraq. Kroll was hired by the kuwaiti government and the Treasury a office of foreign asset control to uncover the size and location of Saddam a wealth. A a. Kroll president of the new York based Kroll associates investigation company spoke in interviews last week with the financial times n British newspaper and the �?o60 minutes program on . The reports quoted him As saying Saddam and his a family have skimmed As much As 5 percent of iraqis $200 billion in Oil sales since 1981. Kroll ii so said he found evidence that they siphoned an average 2.5 percent off contracts with japanese  discovered that Saddam a holdings include an �?T8,4 percent stake Worth about $64 million in Hachette which publishes file car and Driver Road amp and woman a Day magazines. A the investigator said his Agency found documents -. Showing the Hachette share purchases started in_i981 with a x percent acquisition by Montana management a holding company based in Geneva with iraqi directors. Hachette said last week it has started an investigation to Dermine the identities of Montana management a shareholders it said it would be prepared to buy Back those shares. A \